


Don't Give Up

by hunters_retreat



Series: A Pretty Enough Story [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gladiator Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 00:43:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16843720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: He was going to die alone, in an alien cell, without even his soulmark as company.





	Don't Give Up

For the first week, he refused to look at it. He draped a scrap of fabric over it or he hid in the shadows so he couldn’t see anything at all. The slave quarters weren’t very welcoming but now, Shiro felt more isolated than ever. 

The others licked their wounds quietly, eyeing Shiro because while they had seen the small acts of kindness, nothing could negate what he had become. Nothing could change that while they were left with mediocre care and poor rations, Shiro had been healed by the druids and he had been turned into … 

He pushed away from the wall and everyone in the corral tensed. He didn’t let himself pause. He just walked as deep into the cavern as he could get. He wished he were back in his room but it was worse there. Alone with …

Alone with nothing. 

They’d replaced his arm with a weapon. It looked like a human arm, metal instead of skin, but the functions were the same, except when he needed to fight. But it wasn’t the weapon he refused to look at. 

He’d always told himself he didn’t believe. That it didn’t matter. He’d loved Adam and he never cared that Adam didn’t have a soulmark. 

But this? He bit his lip to keep in the sob that he’d felt rising all day. He tried to keep from thinking about it but it circled his thoughts, like a beast waiting to spring as soon as he let his thoughts stray. 

“Hey, human.”

He looked up at the Galra half-breed in the cells with them. The guy was an ass, but he knew more about what was happening than anyone else. A stupid man who’d had everything, but lost it all when he’d cheated on his wife, who happened to be the daughter of someone important.

“I got you some ink.”

“What?” Shiro didn’t understand and the Galra smiled like he’d done Shiro the biggest favor ever. 

He pulled out a small hand-held device and pointed it to the wall. He pressed a button and as he moved it over the face of the wall, it turned black under. 

“Your arm is too plain now. Fix it.”

Fix it. Like a fucking pen and some ink could fix it. 

Shiro took a deep breath to try to calm himself but it didn’t work. He had no idea what showed on his face, but the guy backed away. “It wasn’t just ink,” Shiro said coldly. “It was my soulmark!” he screamed and without realizing it, his arm blazed an eerie purple. “There is no fixing it!”

He slammed his fist into the wall beside the guy’s head and Shiro’s chest was heaving in anger. The guy winced as he held his hands up, a seemingly universal sign of surrender.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I didn’t think… I didn’t think humans had soulmates. You said it was a tattoo.”

And he had. Because Shiro had always hid his soulmark. He’d never let anyone see it and he’d tattooed his entire right arm and shoulder to keep people from noticing it. He’d lied about having met his soulmate because he never wanted to be tied to some ass the way his mother had been.

But it had always been there. Even though he didn’t want it, there was comfort in knowing that somewhere in the world was someone that would probably love him, if they ever met. Someone that would understand him better than anyone. His soulmate.

His mark was gone. He would never get it back.

He was going to die alone, in an alien cell, without even his soulmark as company.

“Hey, you!”

Shiro didn’t pay attention to the voice. It was better not to be noticed around here.

“You! Champion!”

He turned then because there was no choice. 

And got a staff butt to the stomach for not turning immediately. He dropped to a knee and the guards grabbed him around the elbows. 

“Time for your new home,” one of them said.

They were rewarding him for the blood he’d spilled, by giving him new quarters. They stole his arm, made him a weapon, and took his soulmate from him. And rewarded him with a softer mattress and a better bathing situation.

They left him in his room and Shiro fell to the floor. 

It never bothered him that Adam wasn’t his soulmate, but if he had been, would he have known? Was there someone out there, right now, feeling the same pain? The loss of the mark that was supposed to tie them both together? Was there someone as lost and alone as he was, trying to claw each breath from his lungs because the air had become too heavy without that one hope left?

He didn’t know how long he stayed on the floor, crying, but eventually he sat up. He went to the bathroom and ran water over his face and he looked. 

He ripped the sleeve off his shirt and looked at the metal arm that had taken his future. His upper bicep and shoulder still had the tribal designs but the soulmark itself had rested below the cut.

Metal, cold and harsh, greeted him instead of the black and red lion head he had tried to cover so many years ago.

He stared at it. This was what he had now. This was who he was. 

He remembered a young kid, not just any kid but someone Shiro had eventually called friend, who had been ready to give up. He didn’t believe in himself or that anyone else could believe in him either. Shiro had told him not to give in. Not to lose faith in himself. 

It felt oddly comforting to remind himself of the words. Don’t give up on yourself. 

Don’t give up on yourself.

He stared at the mirror and looked at the blank space where his soulmark used to be.

Don’t give up on yourself. 


End file.
